England had it at the palm of their hands. And then Thomas Tuchel let it slip away

It was Euphoric. It was majestic. It was everything what the England fans had envisioned that would happen, and it unfurled right in front of their eyes.

When Anthony Gordon stole ahead and poked the ball home from close range to give England a priceless 1-0 lead in the 55th minute, it finally felt like England were building up to the exact same way that their head coach Thomas Tuchel had said. The move was quick, precise, and incisive, which was how Tuchel wanted it to be. And when that goal was followed by a crunching but brilliant goal-saving tackle by Djed Spence, you could reach out and touch the door to the promised land.

A first World Cup Final in 60 years. A breaking of the semifinal hoodoo. England had it at the palms of their hands.

And then Tuchel did the unthinkable and the unforgivable.

For the best part of 60 minutes England showcased the technical superiority that they had in their midfield, with Declan Rice and Elliott Anderson doing an exceedingly good job on marshalling Lionel Messi to be a bystander for much of that phase. In fact, such was the magnitude of the job done that the Argentine talisman gave away the ball 15 times in a first half full of attrition, the most he has given away possession in the last two World Cups as well as Copa Americas. With Anderson going touch-tight to Messi, the man-marking approach was evident.

However, that all changed after England took the lead and Tuchel decided that rather than attack and push the Argentines further down on the campus, he decided to shut shop and went fully defensive from minute 60 onwards. Perhaps the successful resistance his side put against Mexico and Norway in successive matches had a big part to play, but Argentina are not Mexico and Norway. And both sides do not have a certain Lionel Messi to run point for them.

Going defensive to see out a game is fine from a reactive point of view. But doing it proactively, and especially at the cost of willing runners who can take the sting out of the game when needed is like signing your own death warrant.

From that point on till the end of the game, England managed to have just 12% of the ball, letting Argentina dictate terms and attack at will. There is only so much defending that can be done against attacking of this intensity, and that was inevitably broken with an Enzo piledriver.

From there on, there was just one winner, and it was the defending champs as Messi once again carried the team on his back. England paid the price for being too English at the worst possible time, and instead of a spot in the final against Spain, they will be playing against France in a game no one really wants to play. 

England had it all. And Thomas Tuchel let it slip away. This will be spoken about for a very long time.